Wednesday Night

[ego_id_non_feci]

Skip Skip Skip.

I figured out cool stuff!  Like how to hold my sword in a different grip that works better with my arm (no aching today, which is totally cool!).

I take too big of steps when I advance and retreat.  It's impossible for my brain to remember that I wear size 2 shoes, so I take a size 12 step and bobble all over the place and my

Comments

[caeruleanavis]

um...Mateo's Spanish ;P

or is there some super secret of Mateo's origins that i'm not privvy to because i'm not one of the cool kids?

[teffan]

He sings Irish songs

[eithni]

Well, some Irish and a lot of "Irish" songs. :P

[ego_id_non_feci]

Nah, but he doesn't sing Spanish drinking songs, lovey! He sings proper Irish ones, as a man of his skill ought. Never heard of a Spaniard singing the Irish way afore him, but then, I suppose they've hardly no culture of their own and it's really no bother to us- we've a surfeit of it!

Days of the week ("I came home one Monday night as drunk as drunk could be") and a few others I knew from other artists before I heard him sing them. Mostly my dad, of course. It's nice to hear how they sound when they're, you know, in tune and to a stable rhythm.

Damn. Now I miss him. Stupid Texas.

[jinglymushroom]

Dude, I gots that problem with the small steps... Except it's not so much that my feet don't accept small size, they just don't accept small steps, they's all like, "Wheeee! I can jump and hop and skip and bounce and-" Me: "No, smalls steps. These are small, quick adjustments." "Ooookaaay, small...small...small...small..smite!!!! BOOM bounce WHEEEEEE!" Me *shakes head*
And yays! Happy notes!!!! XD

[iarroganti]

I don't know if he will be there, but try and find Don Lot at Gulf Wars.

Like us, God has graced his by building him in proper proportion in a good workshop instead of supersizing him at a celestial McDonalds. He has mastered the art of effective and subtle movement with very small steps.

The way I often describe footwork to people is to imagine you are crossing a dark room to get to the light switch and you don't know if the kids picked up the jacks and other toys. Your toes don't want you to take big steps.

[cealfind]

No Lot at Gulf this year. He's staying home to be Daddy.

[iarroganti]

D'oh!

I should have known that. We are missing him at 4W for the same reason. Okay, we need to get video of Lot on YouTube as an example for short fencers. I know he got me over several hurdles.

[queeninnarnia]

Like us, God has graced his by building him in proper proportion in a good workshop instead of supersizing him at a celestial McDonalds

That is awesome!

[swords_and_pens]

Also, I drop my guard and act like a goofus when I do something I think is wrong. It's another thing to work on- just keep going, 'cause you can make a mistake and recover and not die, but if you go, "Aw, shucks, I did it again!" and lower your tip to the ground in frustration, they'll kill the heck out of you in a New York minute.Pretty common in new fencers, especially women for some reason. Guenievre did it a ton and sometimes still does (*sigh*). The "Damn, I didn't get it right" reaction is less common in guys, probably because we are too dumb and testosterone filled to notice

[ego_id_non_feci]

I'm not even talking about doing it in the middle of a fight during practice! I'm talking, I'm practicing lunging, and lunging, and lunging, at a piece of fabric, and every time I lunge, I mutter, "That's not right!" and simultaneously jump back, squint, cock my head, hunch my shoulders, and drop my tip.

But, towards the end, it was getting better, so that means it's something I've trained myself to do that I can also un-train myself to do. I'm going to get a mirror and watch myself do it a couple of times- maybe recognizing what it looks like from the outside will help convince my back-brain that it's not a good, positive, helpful thing to be doing.

Whuzza-huh?

[swords_and_pens]

ALWAYS recover from your lunge - don't leave it hanging out there. Even if it is wrong, *recover* first, then try again to get it right. Take your time and lunge s-l-o-w-l-y. Explosive speed comes later, when you have the movement refined from lots & lots of practice. For now, go painfully slow.

And take a small step when you lunge, just like when you are moving. Not more than a foot length at most with your front foot, and preferably less. A shorter step actually gives you a longer lunge. Yes, it sounds wrong, but it works. Remind me to show you some time. :)

Re: Whuzza-huh?

[ego_id_non_feci]

But! But! You all go so fast! How am I ever going to catch up

banter on the field

[trueblade32]

expanding on the Wise Don Morcars comment...
of course you could get to the point in your training. That you pretend to drop your guard and say you did something silly ( get it "silly" Sile?) and punk your opponent while they try and punk you....because you have deviously set them up...granted that may not help break you of your habit now..but something for down the road...
some of the best fights are the ones where they square off and trash talk while they fight

Re: banter on the field

[ego_id_non_feci]

Well, I'll put it in the back of my head, but that's not something I will probably do. The last thing I need to do is to teach fellow fighters to punk people who stop a fight to ask a question.

Lord knows who might take that idea and run with it!

:)